Project BioDyn: Long-Term Community Timeseries for Terrestrial and Freshwater Species

A compilation of 2,668 community timeseries from terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, each spanning a minimum of 20 years. The dataset includes species-level abundance or biomass data for birds, invertebrates, plants, mammals, fish, and phytoplankton, compiled from 242 studies. It was assembled by Shyamolina Ghosh at the University of Zurich to analyze community stability and its drivers.

Use Cases

• Analyzing community stability over time based on the long-term species abundance timeseries.
• Investigating the relationship between species richness and community synchrony using the compiled multi-taxa data.
• Modeling tail-dependent synchrony as a driver of ecosystem stability across terrestrial and freshwater realms.
• Comparing biodiversity dynamics between taxonomic groups like birds, mammals, fish, and plants.

Strengths

• Includes 2,668 distinct community timeseries, providing a substantial sample size for analysis.
• All timeseries have a minimum duration of 20 years, enabling long-term trend analysis.
• Covers multiple taxonomic groups across two major ecosystem realms (terrestrial and freshwater).
• Compiled from 242 distinct studies, suggesting a synthesis of diverse research efforts.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• The specific geographic and temporal coverage for each timeseries is not detailed in the provided metadata.

Provenance

Source

University of Zurich, compiled by Shyamolina Ghosh.

Collection Method

Compilation of data from 242 existing studies (study IDs).

Time Range

Each timeseries covers a minimum of 20 years; specific overall range is not provided.

Geography

Global coverage implied by compilation from many studies; specific regions are not listed.